I best explain the title to this one…
I sold a door on Monday to a gentlemen that had come home to find his door broken down by the police. Apparently concern was raised by his neighbours because he had not been seen for a few days, so they called the police. He did say he had told them he was going away for a few days, but obviously that information was missed.
So, down came the police, got no response from inside the property and proceeded to break the door down – to find that no one was in the home. The customer then comes back to find wood and nails being his new front door.
What I don’t understand is that when the police know that cylinders can be snapped very easily from the outside, why they continue to batter doors down off their hinges beyond repair? All it takes is a few seconds to snap a cylinder from the outside with some very simple tools. It takes far long to get out the battering ram to try and brake the door down.
Surely it would be cheaper and far more efficient for all parties involved in these scenarios to at least and break the lock first, before starting to destroy the door.
This isn’t the first time where I’ve attended a police break-in where they didn’t have to go to the lengths of breaking the door down to get in. Last year I visited an elderly chap where they could quite have easily snapped the cylinder and got in that way. Again, it turns out they didn’t need to break the door down, so they ended up covering the costs for the new one.
What is strange to me is that given the information and knowledge they have about vulnerable cylinders, is why they aren’t using that to their advantage when it comes to trying to gain entry. There is far less stress and upheaval in replacing a lock and handles than there is a whole new door, and a lot cheaper too.
I wonder if any police forces out there will read this, consider their current policies in forced entry and make changes where they see fit. Because at the moment a lot of elderly people are going through stress and cost where they shouldn’t be.
Whom pays for replacement door ? Police ? Insurance ? Or client ?
They will say it was an emergency.A matter of life and death , not knowing if the guy was inside injured.
Surely it is an insurance claim as it stands.Then if the insurance company want their money covered they can claim off the police.
Otherwise it will be a long drawn out process I fear for the said gentleman to get through the numerous departments at police H.Q.
We do work on behalf of the TVP and majority of the time it is the home owner that has to pay in this situation.
Is it possible to snap the lock on the doors you sell?
As far as I know Greg no. We test the cylinders we use ourselves before we sell them, our very gifted service engineer failed to force it to fail.
Fit Kite marked cylinders which are anti snap, anti bump, anti drill and anti pick. They should be standard on all doors, old and new.
I suspect the real reason for this is police red tape, patrol car inventories and standard uniform/equipment rules. The laws regarding what police can and cannot carry about their person are stringent and would cost far more than any door repair costs to change. I know for a fact that most forced entries are as an absolute last resort due to the amount of paperwork involved for the officers concerned. Lets be fair I don’t think you’d be overly worried about the door of you were lying injured or seriously ill. Why not contact your area force and offer a… Read more »
This is a bit of the typical hindsight wisdom us Brits seem to have regarding Police action in all sorts of ways. We soon forget what the Police have to deal with in these situations daily, and how they respond when we are in need. I’d be glad they booted the door in if an elderly relative was suspected of having fallen. Waiting an hour or so to contact me would be no good. Nor messing about with locks. Take it to the Nth degree and have them call out a locksmith to pick it! Most people don’t see the… Read more »
I used to do repair work for the police,almost every case was the same bash the door in and just leave someone else to deal with it,I remember once when I attended a job and the door was an 8 ft high storm door which looked like it was in a very big fight with a battering ram and lost,the police were still in attendance when I arrived,and as the door was so big and heavy I asked one of the officers for 5 minutes of his time to help get it back on its hinges and he said We… Read more »